The various rococo elements of this mirror, such as the swan on a serpentined watery bracket; rustic gothic pilasters with festooned acanthus-scrolls; as well as the arched head-glass with its watery embossments accompanied by scroll-pediments embellished with Chinese bells, birds and foliate-umbrella, can all be found in the engraved designs of the 1750's, published by the carver/drawing master Thomas Johnson (d. circa 1778) whose most famous publication was One Hundred and Fifty New Designs, London, 1761. However, the general form relates most closely to a 'Pier Glass Frame', published in Thomas Chippendale, Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, London, 1754, plate CXLI

The mirror was probably commissioned by Thomas Cobbe, MP., whose wife was the sister of George, 1st Marquess of Waterford. Soon after inheriting the house he inserted in 1763 a fashionable rococo drawing room with plasterwork by Richard 'Williams the Stucco' a pupil of Robert West. There are five mirrors still at Newbridge which are labelled by Robinson (see: G. Jackson-Stops, 'Newbridge Restored', Country Life, 18 February 1988, pp. 64-69, fig. 12). These mirrors were probably moved from the Cobbe's Dublin home in 1788 and placed in the drawing room which was revamped in 1791. James Robinson (fl. 1761-1774) of Lower Abbey Street moving to 7 Capel Street 1771-1774, also worked with Richard Cranfield at the Provost's Home, Trinity College, Dublin (see: The Knight of Glin, A Directory of the Dublin Furnishing Trade 1752-1800, Agnes Bernelle, editor, Decantations in honour of Maurice Craig, Dublin, 1991, forthcoming)

This mirror originally hung in the Polished Room or Purple Bedroom and is possibly the one recorded in 1821 inventory as '1 Looking Glass (Pier)'